BAE Systems received a contract worth up to $233 million to support the US Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) with engineering services, production engineering, integration, testing, inspection, and installation of various C4ISR (command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) systems.

As part of the contract, BAE’s Electronics, Intelligence and Support division will provide information, operating system integration and related services at land-based facilities and on various platforms, such as ships, submarines, and ground vehicles.

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ROKS King Sejong the Great
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KDX (Korean Destroyer eXperimental) is the Republic of Korea’s big surface combatant shipbuilding program. This 3-phased program involves 3 individual classes of ships. The 3 KDX-I Gwanggaeto the Great Class ships are called destroyers, but a 3,800 tons their size and armament more properly rank them as small frigates. The last ship of class was commissioned in 2000. The next 6 KDX-II Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin Class ships are indeed destroyers at 6,085 tons full load, with a hull design licensed from Germany’s IABG and more advanced systems that include SM-2 air defense missiles. They were commissioned between 2003-2008.

With that experience under their belts, Korea has now launched into the 3rd phase of the program. The KDX-III King Sejong the Great destroyers are by far the largest, at 8,500 tons standard displacement and 11,000 tons full load. They carry the AEGIS combat system, along with a wide array of American, European, and Korean weapons and missiles.

DID’s article offers details regarding the class, as well as some of the relevant contracts. The latest item is a $41.1 million award to Lockheed Martin for combat systems engineering, installation, and testing aboard the 2nd ship being built in the KDX-III class…

• The KDX III Sejongdaewang-Ham Class
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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Engineering Services Network (ESN) in Arlington, VA received a $47 million contract to provide information technology service support to the 75th Air Base Wing at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

The 75th Air Base Wing is responsible for base operating support of all units at Hill AFB.

Hill AFB is home to the Ogden Air Logistics Center, which provides worldwide engineering and logistics management for the F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet, A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support aircraft, and Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The base performs depot maintenance of the F-16, A-10 and C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.

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Rome Research Corp., a Rome, NY-based subsidiary of PAR Technology Corp., received a 5-year contract worth up to $43.1 million to provide operator level personnel to the 21st Signal Brigade for its work operating and maintaining US Army Global Information Grid (GIG) facilities within the continental United States.

The US Department of Defense’s GIG represents a globally interconnected, end-to-end set of information capabilities and processes for collecting, processing, and managing information for US troops, policymakers, and support personnel. Each US military service operates a segment of the GIG…

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Trident II D-5 Test Launch
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L3 Interstate Electronics Corp. in Anaheim, CA received a $39.2 million cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide data acquisition, processing, and analysis for Trident missile flight test missions of the United States and United Kingdom. This contract contains options, which if exercised, would bring the contract value to $49.4 million.

The US Navy recently tested 2 D-5 Trident ballistic missiles from the USS West Virginia [SSBN 736] submarine in the Atlantic Ocean.

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ManTech International Corp. in Chantilly, VA won a 5-year, $286.5 million cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide scientific and engineering support services for the US Army Electronic Proving Ground (EPG) at Fort Huachuca, AZ.

ManTech will support testing of command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I), navigation, and sensor systems for reliability, availability and maintainability, electromagnetic interference and compatibility, and security.

The EPG, part of the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), is the Army’s primary test facility for C4I systems…

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Those Were the Days
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The US military has a vast store of supplies and equipment around the world. Keeping track of all that stuff has always been a challenge. In World War II, the US Army kept track using IBM punch cards and electric accounting machines (EAMs).

Well today, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags have replaced punch cards and RFID readers and computers have replaced the EAMs. The RFID tags work like “wireless bar codes” that record, track, and manage the supplies and equipment of a modern networked military.

Military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have focused attention on the performance of the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) supply chain management in support of deployed US troops. The availability of spare parts and other critical supply items affects the readiness and operational capabilities of the forces, and the supply chain can be a critical link in determining outcomes on the battlefield.

So, not only does RFID technology help keep track of supplies and equipment, it also helps get critical supplies to the battlefield at the right time and place and to secure supplies en route. In the latest news, SRA International won a $4.4 million contract under the USMC Passive Radio Frequency Identification (pRFID) Infrastructure Support and Sustainment program…

• Key Technologies
• Applications
• Benefits
• Problems
• RF-ITV System
• Other Uses
• Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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A Raytheon team received a $28 million task order from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to develop network operations situational awareness (NetOps SA) across US Department of Defense (DoD) classified and unclassified networks.

Under the task order, part of the Raytheon’s Encore II contract (HC1028-08-D-2024), Raytheon and its team – General Dynamics, SAIC, Eye Street Software, and BCMC – will provide NetOps SA products that will, among other things, enable detection of network intrusions and assess the overall health of DoD networks…

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General Dynamics Information Technology received a $22.2 million contract from the US Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) to support the Naval Integrated Tactical Environmental System Next Generation (NITES-Next) program. The contract has a potential value of $67.7 million over 5 years if all options are exercised.

General Dynamics will design, develop, integrate, test and support the deployment of NITES-Next, which uses software to display meteorological and oceanographic (METOC) information on Navy mission-planning and command and control (C2) systems. NITES-Next is a follow-on system to the Navy’s NITES…

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LPD-17 cutaway
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LPD-17 San Antonio class amphibious assault support vessels are a new class of ship which is just entering service with the US Navy. Much like their predecessors, their mission is to embark, transport, land, and support elements of a US Marine Corps Landing Force. What changes are the capabilities and technologies incorporated to perform that mission. This new ship class includes significant internal technology and design upgrades, and is designed to operate accompanying platforms like the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle amphibious armored personnel carrier.

Between 10-11 scheduled ships of this class are slated to assume the functional duties of up to 41 previous ships, including the USA’s older LSD-36 USS Anchorage class dock landing ships (all decommissioned as of 2004, LSD-36 and LSD-38 transferred to Taiwan) and its LPD-4 USS Austin Class ships (12 built and serving, LPD 14 Trenton now India’s INS Jalashva). The San Antonio class ships may also replace 2 classes of ships currently mothballed and held in reserve status under the Amphibious Lift Enhancement Program (ALEP): the LST-1179 Newport class tank landing ships, and LKA-113 Charleston class amphibious cargo ships.

Welcome to Norfolk…
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Replacing that many existing ships is already a very tall order. While its design incorporates notable advances, the San Antonio Class has also had its share of teething problems. So, too, has the New Orleans shipyard to which most of this contract has been assigned. The number of serious issues encountered in this ship class have been much higher than usual, and more extensive. The initial ships have been criticized for sub-standard workmanship, and it took 2 1/2 years after the initial ship of class was delivered and accepted before any ship of class was sent on an operational cruise. Whereupon the USS San Antonio promptly found itself laid up Bahrain due to oil leaks. Meanwhile, costs are almost twice the originally promised amounts at over $1.7 billion per ship – 2 to 3 times as much as many foreign LPD classes, and more than 10 times as much as Singapore’s 6,600 ton Endeavour Class LPD.

DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record. This is DID’s FOCUS Article for the San Antonio Class, detailing the ships’ unique features and capabilities, its program innovations and issues, ship timelines, and related contracts throughout the program’s history. As has become DID custom, the most recent additions are highlighted in green type. The latest developments include a contract to Raytheon that could be worth over $175 million, and the imminent commissioning of the LPD 21 New York, which contains steel from the destroyed World Trade Center…

• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Capabilities and Features
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Process & Issues
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Program, Budgets & Timelines [updated]
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Contracts and Events (1996-Present) [updated]
• Appendix A: Additional Readings & Sources – LPD-17 Ship Class
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources – News and Views
  
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